Method and system for automatically and transparently archiving documents and document meta data

ABSTRACT

According to the present invention, an automatic archiving system that makes document archiving largely transparent to the user. In one embodiment, documents scanned in or printed during the course of office equipment operation are automatically archived. For example, an office local area network (LAN) may interconnect a copier, a printer, a facsimile machine, and a document management workstation. Whenever, a document is copied, printed, or faxed, a document image is archived by the document management workstation without further user intervention. A single user command results in the document being copied and archived, printed and archived, or faxed and archived.

STATEMENT OF RELATED APPLICATIONS Cross References to RelatedApplications

This application is a continuation application of and claims the benefitof U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/430,377, filed Oct. 29, 1999, nowU.S. Pat. No. 6,704,118 which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/347,953, filed Jul. 6, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No.6,665,086 which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.08/754,721, filed Nov. 21, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,477 which areincorporated in their entirety herein by reference for all purposes.

This application makes reference to the following commonly owned patentsand patent application, the entire contents of which are incorporatedherein by reference for all purposes:

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/614,913, entitled, “A FAST METHODFOR DETECTING INVERTED TEXT IMAGES ON A DIGITAL SCANNING DEVICE”

U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,908;

U.S. Pat. No. 5,854,854; and

U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,304.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a document management system and moreparticularly to providing automatic archiving to standard officeequipment.

With the rapid development of storage system technology, the cost ofstoring an image of a sheet of paper on digital media has become lessthan the cost of printing and storing the sheet of paper itself. Digitaldocument storage also facilitates later electronic search and retrievaland raises the possibility of automatic filing of documents.

Until now, systematic digital document storage has required userdiscipline to scan in each and every document for the express purpose ofarchiving. Work has been done to make stand-alone scanners lessexpensive, easier to use, and more compact. However, the user muststill 1) remember that a document should be scanned, 2) locate ascanner, 3) bring the document to the scanner, and 4) operate thescanner. However, scanning occurs constantly in the office environmentin the contexts of copying and faxing.

What is needed are techniques for providing searchable archival ofdocument images.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides techniques for automatically archivingdocuments that make archiving largely transparent to the user. In oneembodiment, documents scanned in or printed during the course of officeequipment operation are automatically archived. For example, an officelocal area network (LAN) may interconnect a variety of devices, such asa copier, a printer, a facsimile machine, a client computer, an emailserver, a document management workstation and the like. Whenever adocument is copied, printed, faxed emailed, or the like a document imagecan be archived by the document management workstation without furtheruser intervention. A single user command results in the document beingcopied and archived, printed and archived, faxed and archived, oremailed and archived.

In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, a method forprocessing document images includes steps of receiving a single userinput command. Responsive to the single user input command, the methodcan receive a document to collect document image data. Determining atleast one meta data index based upon the document image data can also bepart of the method. Further, the method can include causing the documentimage data and the meta data to be archived.

In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, a method forprinting and archiving documents includes receiving a single usercommand requesting that a document be printed, printing the document inresponse to the single user command, and archiving image datarepresenting the document in response to the single user command.

In accordance with a third aspect of the invention, a method forarchiving documents to be faxed includes receiving a single user commandindicating that a document is to be faxed, scanning the document to befaxed in response to the single user command, transmitting first imagedata representing the document as scanned to a remote location via apublic telephone network, and archiving, in response to the single usercommand, second image data representing the document as previouslyscanned.

In accordance with a fourth aspect of the invention, a computerinstallation includes a digital copier that scans in documents to becopied, a printer that prints documents, a computer system controlling along-term storage medium, and a network interconnecting the digitalcopier, the printer, and the computer system. The digital copier relaysimage data representing the documents to be copied to the computersystem for storage on the long-term storage medium. The printer, or aprinter server controlling the printer, or a computer system initiatinga command to print relays image data representing printed documents tothe computer system for storage on the long-term storage medium.

In accordance with a fifth aspect of the invention, a digital copierincludes a scanner that generates image data representing a document tobe copied, an image processing unit that processes the image data tocorrect imaging errors introduced by the scan engine, a printer thatcopies the document responsive to the image data as processed by theimage processing unit, and an image data tap that relays the image datato a storage system for archiving.

A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the inventionsherein may be realized by reference to the remaining portions of thespecification and the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a simplified schematic diagram of a representative officemachine network implementing automatic document archiving in aparticular embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 depicts a simplified diagram of a portion of a copier controlinterface in a particular embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 depicts a simplified top-level diagram of a representativedigital copier implementing automatic document archiving in a particularembodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 depicts a simplified diagram of alternative signals usable forextracting horizontal synchronization data from a digital copier in aparticular embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 depicts a simplified diagram of a representative printerinterface in a particular embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 6 depicts a simplified diagram of a facsimile machine interface ina particular embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 7 depicts a simplified diagram of a facsimile machine suitable forimplementing automatic archiving in a particular embodiment according tothe present invention;

FIG. 8 depicts simplified diagram of a representative computer systemsuitable for implementing automatic archiving in a particular embodimentaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 9 depicts a simplified diagram of a representative softwarearchitecture for operating a document image database a particularembodiment according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS Overall Architecture for AutomaticArchiving

FIG. 1 depicts a simplified diagram of a representative office machinenetwork implementing automatic document archiving in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention. This diagram is merely anillustration and should not limit the scope of the claims herein. One ofordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations,modifications, and alternatives. FIG. 1 depicts a network 100, that maybe any of a plurality of networking topologies, such as Ethernet, tokenring, and the like. Network 100 interconnects a representative clientsystem 102, a print server 104, a special digital copier 106, a documentmanagement workstation 108, and a special facsimile machine 110. Printserver 104 controls printing on a representative printer 112 at therequest of client system 102 and relays document image data to documentmanagement workstation 108 for archiving. Digital copier 106 copiesdocuments and transmits image data obtained during the course of copyingto document management workstation 108 for archiving. Similarly,facsimile machine 110 captures image data during the course of sendingand receiving documents and transmits the image data to documentmanagement workstation 108 for archiving. An email server 116 cancollect electronic copies of email transmitted over network 100.Document management workstation 108 collects the document image datacollected from all of the office equipment and maintains an archive on adisk storage unit 114. Client system 102 may browse this archive.

The configuration of network 100 is of course only representative. Forexample, automatic archiving of documents may be implemented with onlyone or two types of office machine instead of the depicted types. Also,functionality of one or more units shown in FIG. 1 may be combined intothe same unit or divided among many units. Further, other officemachines not pictured in FIG. 1 can be added in some embodimentsaccording to the present invention by those of ordinary skill in the artwithout departing from the scope of the claimed invention.

Automatic Archiving of Copied Documents

In accordance with a particular embodiment of the present invention,digital copier 106 transparently archives documents that are copied.FIG. 2 depicts a simplified diagram of a representative portion of acopier control interface 200 usable with digital copier 106. Thisdiagram is merely an illustration and should not limit the scope of theclaims herein. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize othervariations, modifications, and alternatives. Copier control interface200 includes a numeric keypad 202, an Enter key 204, and a Start/copykey 206. Copier control interface 200 may be implemented using, e.g., atouch pad, touch screen, mechanical buttons, and the like. Controls forpaper size, copy darkness, copy contrast, paper size, andmagnification/reduction ratio (not shown) can be included in variousembodiments of the present invention.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, activationof Start/copy key 206 can initiate both copying of a document andarchiving of an image of the document. The user positions the document,e.g., in a document feeder (not shown), and then enters a personalaccess code on numeric keypad 202 finishing access code entry bydepressing Enter key 204. Depressing Start/copy key 206 represents asingle user command that is interpreted by digital copier 106 to requestboth copying and archiving. Thus by copying, the user achieves bothcopying and archiving. In one embodiment, the user may enter a lock-outcode to inhibit archiving, for instance, for privacy-protectionpurposes.

Details of the hardware for the copying and archiving processes will bedescribed with reference to FIGS. 3-5.

FIG. 3 depicts a simplified top-level diagram of a representativedigital copier 106 implementing automatic document archiving inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention. This diagram ismerely an illustration and should not limit the scope of the claimsherein. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize othervariations, modifications, and alternatives. Digital copier 106 includesa scanner engine 302, a print engine 304, a controller 306, a touchscreen 308, and an internal disk storage unit 310. Controller 306includes a DRAM unit 312, an image compressor 314, which can be aLempel-Ziv (LZ) image compressor, for example, a CPU 316, a persistentstorage controller 318, which can be an IDE controller, for example, aSCSI controller 320, and a network interface 321. A bus 323interconnects the controller elements. Scanner engine 302 includes ascanner 302A and an image processing unit 302B. A video bus 324interconnects scanner engine 302 and print engine 304. An image data tap326 provides controller 306 with access to image data transferred overvideo bus 324. Controller 306 also takes advantage of an HSYNC signal406 and a VSYNC signal 410 generated within print engine 304.

Digital copier 106 accepts a document 328 and prints a copy 330 uponactivation of Start/Copy key 206. Scanner 302A captures an image ofdocument 328 and transmits the image to image processing unit 302B.Image processing unit 302B operates to remove distortion inherent in thescanning process. In a particular embodiment, the output of the imageprocessing unit can be in a format where approximately 8 bits representthe grey-scale level of a pixel, there are about 4380 active pixels perline, and there are approximately 3380 active lines per frame ordocument page. There can be about a 10 pixel blanking period before andafter each active line, making the total number of pixels per line ofapproximately, 4400. Similarly, there can be an approximately 10 lineblanking period before and after every frame, making the total number oflines in a frame about 3400. Of course, these parameters are onlyrepresentative, and other embodiments having different design choicescan be conceived by those of ordinary skill in the art without departingfrom the scope and spirit of the present invention.

Pixel data is forwarded from image processing unit 302B to print engine304 for printing. The data rate over video bus 324 can be approximately20 MHz in one embodiment. Controller 306 monitors video bus 324 viaimage data tap 326 to receive the same pixel data. Although, it would bepossible to monitor the pixel data prior to image processing unit 302B,the advantage to monitoring on video bus 324 is that image processingunit 302B is tightly coupled to scanner 302A, which can monitor andcorrect for errors inherent in the scanning process.

Controller 306 performs overall control functions for digital copier 106including the archiving functions. CPU 316, which can be an INTEL 80960CF micro-controller, for example, operates the control program for theoperation of digital copier 106. Alternative embodiments can use anINTEL 80x86 family compatible processor, a MOTOROLA 68xxx familyprocessor, or the like. Image data can be transferred into controller306 at a faster rate via image data tap 326 than the image data can bearchived. Accordingly, DRAM unit 312, preferably incorporatingapproximately 8 to 72 MB, or more, of DRAM, acts as a buffer for imagedata. This allows printing of the copy to continue without interruptionby the archiving process.

To save on storage space and facilitate faster data transfer acrossnetwork 100, LZ image compressor 314 may compress the image data priorto archiving. In one embodiment, a Lempel-Ziv image compression formatis used. Other embodiments can include other image compression formatsin accordance with the invention. With each block of image data to bearchived, controller 306 incorporates the user ID data received fromtouch screen 308.

The actual archiving of document images may occur either locally orremotely. Controller 306 may maintain the archive on disk storage unit310, in which case the image data will be transferred via IDE controller318. The archive may also be maintained either internally or externallyon SCSI drives to which image data is transferred via SCSI controller320. Note, that if the archive is maintained on disk storage unit 310,or a disk drive accessible via SCSI controller 320, digital copier 106will absorb some or all of the functionality of document managementworkstation 108. If the archive is maintained on document managementworkstation 108, network interface 321 sends the image data there vianetwork 100 along with the user ID data for each particular document.Typically, LZ image compressor 314 is used in applications wheredocuments are archived locally as opposed to remotely.

FIG. 4 depicts a simplified diagram of representative signalstransferred over video bus 324 and image data tap 326 in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention. This diagram is merely anillustration and should not limit the scope of the claims herein. One ofordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations,modifications, and alternatives. A pixel data line 327 carries the imagedata generated by image processing unit 302B in a format to drive alaser diode input port 402 of print engine 304.

Print engine 304 operates in accordance with well-known laser xerographyprinciples and incorporates a laser diode that varies in illuminationintensity responsive to the document image to be printed. The 8 bitsinput to laser diode input port 402 includes 3 bits modulating theintensity of illumination of the laser diode and 5 bits modulating thewidth of illumination pulses. These pixels transfer over a pixel dataline 327 at an approximately 20 MHz rate. In one presently preferredembodiment, the image data presented at laser diode input port 402 isdirectly relayed to controller 306 via image data tap 326.

The beam output of the laser diode passes through a system of lens andmirrors that generates the horizontal scanning action to sweep the beamover a rotating xerographic drum, thereby recreating the document imageas a charge pattern on the drum. Typically, the rotation of a polygonalmirror tracks the scanning action. To assure the highest quality ofreproduction, printing requires careful synchronization between theconstituent parts of the scanner 302A, image processing unit 302B andthe Print Engine 304. This synchronization is performed using thehorizontal and vertical video synchronization signals, lines 404, 406,408, and 410. These signals can be interrelated in terms ofsynchronization to the motion inherent in the rotating polygonal mirrorwhich provides faster scanning in the print engine, and in terms of thescanner 302A. In some embodiments, the timing may be obtained by theprint engine 304, and circuitry in image processing unit 302B isphase-locked to that timing. In an alternate embodiment, imageprocessing unit 302B may provide the master timing to the print engine304, which subsequently phase-locks or otherwise synchronizes itsmechanical motion to these source signals. This embodiment isillustrated in FIG. 4. Those skilled in the art will recognize the manyand various alternative selections of the master reference timingsources used for generating the synchronization signals in FIG. 4, invarious embodiments according to the present invention.

Horizontal synchronization signal (HSYNC) 406 for the image data may beobtained from print engine 304 in many ways. One technique is toposition an optically sensitive sensor at a point within the opticalsystem where the scanning action of the beam may be monitored. A pulseis generated every time the beam reaches an extremity of the scan.Depending on the particular design of the optical system, this pulserate may be a harmonic or sub-harmonic of the actual horizontalsynchronization rate.

Another technique is to attach an optical encoder to the motor thatrotates the polygonal mirror. By monitoring the motor operation in this,or some other way, horizontal synchronization signal 406 may be derived.It is also possible to derive horizontal synchronization signal 406 fromthe control signal which drives the motor.

A vertical synchronization control 408 also incorporates informationabout the scanning action of scanner 302A. To assure high qualityreproduction, the movement of paper through print engine 304 takes thisvertical synchronization control information into account. Verticalsynchronization signal 410 may be obtained from print engine 304 in avariety of ways. One way is to tap off an internal signal that gates anew sheet of paper to pass underneath the xerographic drum.

The horizontal and vertical synchronization signals 406 and 410 can beused to assure that only valid pixels are archived. Data indicating thenumber of lines on each page and the line length in pixels is alsoarchived with the pixels. Thus, when the document is retrieved forprinting later, printing of the document inherently takes advantage ofthe information present on vertical synchronization control 408 andhorizontal synchronization control 404, namely image position within apage, and more particularly, the size of paper printed upon.Furthermore, the document image has already been subject tosophisticated image processing by Image Processing Unit 302B. The finalprinted document can be a very high quality reproduction.

The present invention is however not restricted to capturing image datafor archiving at the output of an image processing system such as ImageProcessing Unit 302B. Whether or not such an image processing system ispresent, image data for archiving may be captured at the output ofscanner 302A.

Automatic Archiving of Printed Documents

FIG. 5 depicts a simplified diagram of a representative user interfacescreen 500 for operating a printer. This diagram is merely anillustration and should not limit the scope of the claims herein. One ofordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations,modifications, and alternatives. A user interface screen such as screen500 is generally displayed by client system 102 whenever the userrequests printing of a document. A list 502 of options permits the userto select whether the full document is to be printed, only a specifiedrange of pages, or only text that has been highlighted using a pointingand selection device such as a mouse. If a range of pages is to bespecified, a field 504 is used to enter the range of page numbers. Afield 506 permits the user to specify a number of document copies to beprinted. A “current printer” field 508 identifies the printer that willbe used to print the document. Activation of a “Close” screen button 510dismisses user interface screen 500.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, activationof “Print” button 512 represents a single user command to both print andarchive the document. Client system 102 sends the document to be printedto print server 104 which runs print spooling software for writing toprinter 112. The print spooling software maintains a queue of print jobsto run. The document may be sent to print server 104 in any format, suchas text, TIFF, GIF, postscript, etc. Printer 112 will typically acceptpostscript input but other printer configurations are also possible. Ifthe format of transmission by client system 102 is different from theformat accepted by printer 112, printer server 104 will also performformat conversion.

In a particular embodiment according to the present invention, eachdocument handled by print spooling software is sent to documentmanagement workstation 108. The document may be transmitted in eitherthe format generated by client system 102 or any format to which printerserver 104 is able to convert. The document may be sent to documentmanagement workstation 108 with data identifying the current user ofclient system 102. Thus, archiving becomes an incidental consequence ofthe printing process. Previously printed documents are retrievable.

Automatic Archiving of Faxed Documents

FIG. 6 depicts a simplified diagram of a representative facsimilemachine user interface 600. This diagram is merely an illustration andshould not limit the scope of the claims herein. One of ordinary skillin the art would recognize other variations, modifications, andalternatives. A display screen 602 provides the user with prompts. Akeypad 604 allows for entry of a telephone number to which a document isto be faxed. Depression of a start button 606 causes a document to bescanned into a memory within a facsimile machine or, if a document hasalready been scanned into memory and a telephone number has beenentered, causes the document to be faxed to the entered telephonenumber. Depression of a stop button 608 causes faxing to cease. Inaccordance with the present invention, depression of start button 606 atthe appropriate time represents a single user command to both fax andarchive a document.

FIG. 7 depicts a simplified diagram of a representative facsimilemachine 110 modified for automatic archiving in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention. This diagram is merely anillustration and should not limit the scope of the claims herein. One ofordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations,modifications, and alternatives. Facsimile machine 110 incorporates ascanner 702 for scanning a document to be faxed and storing a binarypixel representation of the document in a memory (not shown) internal toscanner 702. A source coding unit 704 compresses the gray scale pixeldata in accordance with facsimile transmission standard, e.g., GroupIII. A modem 706 modulates a carrier with the compressed data output ofsource coding unit 704 in accordance with the relevant facsimiletransmission standard to generate a modulated signal to output on atelephone line 708.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, an imagedata tap 710 transmits the compressed data output of source coding unitto a network interface 712. Network interface 712 in turn sends thecompressed data output representing a document to document managementworkstation 108 for archiving. In an alternative embodiment, image datatap 710 is instead positioned at the output of scanner 702.

Optionally, the user enters a code number on keypad 604 to identifyhimself or herself. This information is also sent to document managementworkstation 108 to be stored with the faxed document. Alternatively, theidentity of the user of facsimile machine 110 is already known in someother way.

Thus, every document that is faxed is also archived without further userinput. This provides yet another source of document images for thearchive maintained by document management workstation 108.

Automatic Archiving of Email Documents

Email messages sent and received by a user can be captured on the clientsystem 102 or at an email hub 116. Users typically read and send emailwith an email reader on a client system 102. Such email readers aretypically provided with the ability to save copies of every message sentand received by a user. For example, NETSCAPE COMMUNICATOR has thisability as does the BERKELEY UNIX MAIL READER. Such email readers can beconfigured so these message copies are passed automatically to thedocument management workstation 108.

In an alternative embodiment, email document archival is performed bysoftware on an email hub. Email hub 116 comprises a computer softwaresystem on a network that transfers email messages between client systemsand the Internet. The email hub software routes and delivers mail overnetworks. In a particular embodiment, the email hub can use the Sendmailpackage. For more detailed information about Sendmail, further referencemay be had to www.sendmail.org and to B. Costales and E. Allman,“Sendmail” (2d. ed.), by O'Reilly and Associates, Inc., 1997, the entirecontents of which are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.There are other email hub systems that function similarly.

In a representative embodiment, the behavior of the email hub 116 can becontrolled by a configuration file, tables, or the like. Theconfiguration determines how messages are forwarded, transformationsthat are applied to email addresses, and the like. The configurationfile can be configured so that the email hub 116 sends a copy of everymessage sent and received by a user, including the origin anddestination addresses and the date and time of transmission, to thedocument management workstation 108.

Thus, every document that is emailed is also archived without furtheruser input. This provides yet another source of document images for thearchive maintained by the document management workstation 108.

Document Management Workstation

FIG. 8 depicts a simplified diagram of a representative computer system810 suitable for implementing any one or more of client system 102,print server 104, or document management workstation 108 in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention. This diagram is merely anillustration and should not limit the scope of the claims herein. One ofordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations,modifications, and alternatives. Computer system 810 includes bus 812which interconnects major subsystems such as central processor 814,system memory 816, input/output (I/O) controller 818, external devicesuch as display screen 824 via display adapter 826, serial port 828,keyboard 830, fixed disk drive 114 via a storage interface 832, a serialport 834, a CD-ROM player 836, and a removable-disk drive 838. A mouse840 may connect to serial port 828. A network interface 842 forconnection to network 100 may connect to serial port 834. CD-ROM player836 receives a CD-ROM disk 844. Removable-disk drive 838 receives aremovable disk 846. Many other devices or subsystems (not shown) may beconnected in a similar manner. Also, it is not necessary for all of thedevices shown in FIG. 8 to be present to practice the present invention,as discussed below. The devices and subsystems may be interconnected indifferent ways from that shown in FIG. 8. The operation of a computersystem such as that shown in FIG. 8 is readily known in the art and isnot discussed in detail in the present application. Source code toimplement elements of the present invention may be operably disposed insystem memory 816 or stored on storage media such as fixed disk 114,removable disk 846, or CD-ROM 844.

FIG. 9 depicts a simplified diagram of a representative softwarearchitecture 900 for operating a document image database in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention. This diagram is merely anillustration and should not limit the scope of the claims herein. One ofordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations,modifications, and alternatives. In a present embodiment, the softwareoperates on document management workstation 108. Documents to bearchived are received by a CFI (conversion of formats and indexing)module 902 from any one of digital copier 106, print server 104, orfacsimile machine 110. CFI module 902 converts the format of thereceived document to a desired format for storage. CFI module 902 may,e.g., receive the data in the 8 bit pixel format discussed in referenceto digital copier 106 along with synchronization information useful forhigh quality reproduction. These desired formats include, e.g.,postscript, 8 dpi GIFF, 72 dpi GIFF, 400 dpi TIFF, and plain text.Converting from a graphic format to plain text includes the process ofoptical character recognition. CFI module 902 also applies an indexingsystem to the documents to be archived. For plain text documents, theindex information generated for the document facilitates later full textsearching. If the identity of the user is available, this will also forma part of the indexing information for the document to facilitate laterretrieval by the user.

Some specific embodiments according to the present invention can storedata along with archived documents. Such data can be used to facilitatelater access of the archived documents, for example. Select embodimentscan store data representing a source device type, for example. A sourceidentifier can indicate whether the originating device was a copier, amultifunction machine, a printer, a fax machine, a scanner and the like.Data representing a creation time of a document can also be stored bysome embodiments. Creation times can be significantly different from thetime the document was last saved because of network outages, and thelike. For example, a copier might capture a document but not be able tosend it to the document image database for saving until a later time.

In some embodiments, data representing a network address of the sourcedevice can be stored along with the archived image. For example, an IPaddress such as 128.205.32.1, can be stored with documents originatingfrom a workstation assigned to that particular IP address. Networkeddevices each have a unique network address. This address can serve as auseful indexing cue since it can distinguish one network machine fromanother. A user can look for a document that was copied on a certainmultifunction machine, using search techniques applied to networkaddresses stored with document images. This kind of query is easilyperformed using the network address. In a particular embodiment,searching by network addresses can be done by maintaining a table thatmaps network addresses onto device types and physical locations, forexample.

In some embodiments, data representing individual devices can be storedwith a document and used to facilitate later access. For example, datarepresenting access permissions set by users when documents areprocessed can be stored with the archived document images. In a specificembodiment, a user can explicitly instruct a multifunction machine tosave a copy of a document with specific access instructions in order tomake the document available to everyone. The same operation can beperformed at the console of a copier, a fax machine, or scanner, forexample. Users can also set access permissions at the command line whenthey print a document.

In some embodiments, data representing direction of transit can bestored along with the archived image of the document. For example, a faxmachine can supply information about whether a saved document was anincoming or outgoing fax. Select embodiments can also save destinationinformation. In a particular embodiment, a fax machine can supply thetelephone number to which a document was sent in the case of an outgoingfax. A fax machine equipped with caller ID logic can supply thetelephone number and in some cases the name of the party that sent anincoming fax.

Some embodiments can store page size and orientation information. Amultifunction machine, a copier, a scanner, or a fax machine can supplyinformation about the orientation (portrait or landscape) and paper size(letter, legal, A4, etc.) of saved documents. This information isreadily available in these devices. For example, many multifunctionmachines and copiers compute it to determine which paper tray to use.Multiple orientations and sizes are typically provided. Selectembodiments can also store page transformation information. For example,a multifunction machine, a copier, a scanner, or a fax machine canprovide information about the page transformation applied when usersscan documents. Page transformation can include information aboutspecific page transformations, such as placing several pagesside-by-side in reduced form, two-sided printing, rotation angles,reduction or enlargement ratios, scanning resolution, banners such as“CONFIDENTIAL,” and the like.

Some specific embodiments according to the present invention, can storecalculated data along with archived documents. Such calculated data canbe used to facilitate later access of the archived documents. Forexample, in select embodiments, document management workstation 108 cancompute additional index information about a document after the documenthas been input, without modifications to the capture devices. In aparticular embodiment, page size and orientation can be computed andstored. The size of a scanned document image originating on amultifunction machine, copier, scanner, or fax can be directly measured.For example, a 3400×4400 pixel image that originated on a 400 dpiscanner can be determined to be an 8.5×11 inch letter size document. Theorientation of a document image can be detected by measurements onfeatures extracted from its image. A commonly owned U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 08/614,913, entitled, “A FAST METHOD FOR DETECTINGINVERTED TEXT IMAGES ON A DIGITAL SCANNING DEVICE,” the entire contentsof which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes, describesone method for determining page orientation by counting the ascenders onlower case English characters. In other particular embodiments, pageorientation can also be calculated by inputting versions of a documentrotated in different orientations to an Optical Character Reader (OCR).The “correct” orientation typically produces a comparatively largenumber of character decisions. In a still further embodiment, pageorientation of a printed document can be calculated from its printerdescription file. For example, in a postscript file and a renderingengine, e.g., the “ghostscript system” (http://www.cs.wisc.edu/˜ghost/),which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for allpurposes, code can be inserted in the postscript file that is executedevery time a character is rendered. The code counts the orientations ofrendered characters. The orientation of a page corresponds to the mostfrequently occurring character orientation.

Some embodiments can compute and store page transformations. Theexistence of various image characteristics useful for later retrievalcan be calculated from a document image. For example, one technique forcalculating the skew angle of a document image is described in acommonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,854,854, the entire contents of which areincorporated herein by reference for all purposes. In a furtherembodiment, a technique for segmenting and counting the number and sizeof image and text blocks in a document image is described in a commonlyowned U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,304, the entire contents of which areincorporated herein by reference for all purposes. In a yet furtherembodiment, a technique for calculating the number of columns in adocument image is described in L. O' Gorman, “The document spectrum forpage layout analysis,” IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and MachineIntelligence, v. 15, no. 11, November, 1993, 1162-1173, the entirecontents of which are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

In a particular embodiment, page transformations for a printed documentcan be calculated from its printer description file. For example, givena postscript file and a rendering engine, e.g., the “ghostscript system”(http://www.cs.wisc.edu/˜ghost/), which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety for all purposes, code can be inserted in thepostscript file that is executed every time a character is rendered.This code saves the (x, y) origin at which a character is placed,yielding an array of coordinates. One or more of the techniques notedabove in connection with the above referenced patents can be applied tothis array of coordinates to calculate the skew angle of the document.Some embodiments can detect multiple columns of text in a document byadding the x coordinate for every character to an accumulator array.Frequently occurring values correspond to the beginning of a column oftext. The presence of images in a printed document can be detected witha similar technique. The postscript image operator can be augmented withcode that saves the location and size of images in a document.

For each document to be archived, a separate HTML document is generatedwith an iconic form of the images (8 dpi GIF) to be archived andkeywords from a text document that is stored. One set of HTML indexpages is maintained for each user. Each HTML index page in the setprovides a different view of the images in a user's database. Forexample, one page provides a sequential listing of every saved image,including the document icons. Another page provides a sequential listingof all the documents which shows an ASCII summary of each image withoutshowing the icons. CFI module 902 performs the necessary conversions.

An encryption module 904 optionally encrypts the document to be archivedand its HTML counterpart with an encryption key particular to the user.This way only the user and other authorized parties may retrieve theencrypted document. The encrypted documents are stored on disk storageunit 114.

An SRI module (search and retrieval interface) module 906 providesaccess to the document archive maintained on disk storage unit 114.Decryption system 908 is provided as an option for encrypted documents.SRI module 906 is implemented as an HTTP daemon operating on documentmanagement workstation 108. SRI module 906 is preferably the only searchand retrieval path to the document archive. This restricted form ofaccess allows log access information to be maintained. SRI module 906processes HTTP requests from client system 102 to browse HTML documentson disk storage unit 114, or to search and retrieve the archiveddocuments. Full text search is implemented with a WAIS engine or othersearch engine (e.g., VERIFY, EXCALIBUR, FULCRUM) implemented with SRImodule 906. Queries are entered by the user in an HTML form andtransmitted to the search engine using a CGI script running in SRImodule 906. An initial user request should incorporate a password toauthorize decryption by decryption system 908.

To facilitate user interaction with SRI module 906, client system 102preferably runs a world wide web browser such as NETSCAPE NAVIGATORobtainable from Netscape Communications of Mountain View, Calif. Javaprograms may be downloaded from SRI module 906 to perform functions suchas searching or display and printing of particular document formats.

Of course, the storage and retrieval architecture discussed above isonly representative. In a commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,908,entitled, “DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM” includes many other applicationsof an automatic archiving system.

In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described withreference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will, however,be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereuntowithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention asset forth in the appended claims. Many such changes or modificationswill be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art. Forexample, digital copier 106 may also act as a printer for client system102. Also, the network 100 may include connections over a WAN or theInternet, allowing remote archiving and retrieval of documents. Thespecification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense, the invention beinglimited only by the provided claims and their full scope of equivalents.

1. An email server for performing automatic capture archiving ofelectronic documents in a network environment, at least one clientcomputer in the network environment being coupled over a network to atleast one document management workstation having at least one databasedisposed to receive electronic copies of documents transferred over thenetwork, the at least one document management workstation being incommunication with at least one of a copy, print, and facsimileoperation, said email server being operatively disposed to: receive acopy of every email document transferred over the network from the atleast one client computer, each email document being transferred overthe network in response to a single user input command; cause electronicimage data to be generated for each received copy of an email document,the electronic image data being generated in a format acceptable forstorage in the at least one database for the at least one documentmanagement workstation; and cause the generated electronic image data tobe stored in the at least one database to perform capture archiving ofthe email document, wherein the at least one database further comprisesimage data from capture archiving of electronic document images from theat least one of a copy, print, and facsimile operation, wherein theaforementioned steps are carried out transparent to the user and withoutfurther input from the user notwithstanding the single user inputcommand, wherein the aforementioned steps are carried out atsubstantially a time that the email document is transferred over thenetwork.
 2. The email server of claim 1, wherein the at least one of thecopy, print, and facsimile operation comprises at least one of a copieroperation, printer operation, and facsimile machine operation thatarchived image data for at least one of the copier operation, printeroperation, and facsimile machine operation.
 3. The email server of claim2, wherein the image data is generated from hardcopy documents andelectronic documents.
 4. A method for automatically and transparentlyarchiving electronic documents in a network environment, at least oneclient computer in the network environment being coupled over a networkto at least one document management workstation having at least onedatabase disposed to receive electronic copies of documents transferredover the network, the at least one document management workstation beingin communication with at least one of a copier operation, a printeroperation, and a facsimile machine operation, the method comprising:receiving a copy of every email document transferred over the networkfrom the at least one client computer, each email document beingtransferred over the network in response to a single user input command;generating electronic image data for each received copy of an emaildocument, the electronic image data being generated in a formatacceptable for storage in the at least one database for the at least onedocument management workstation; and causing the generated electronicimage data of every received email document to be stored in the at leastone database to perform image capture archiving of the email document,wherein the aforementioned steps are performed transparent to the userand without further input from the user notwithstanding the single userinput command, wherein the at least one database is further configuredto store image data that was archived from the at least one of a copieroperation, a printer operation, and a facsimile machine operation, andwherein the aforementioned steps are carried out at substantially a timethat the email document is transferred over the network.
 5. The methodof claim 4, wherein causing the collected image data of every email tobe stored comprises storing at least one of an origin address anddestination address for an email.
 6. The method of claim 4, whereincausing the collected image data of every email to be stored comprisesstoring at least one of a date of transmission and time of transmissionfor an email.
 7. An email server for performing automatic capturearchiving of electronic documents in a network environment, said emailserver operatively disposed to: generate a copy of each email documenttransmitted over the network environment, the email document beingtransmitted in response to a single user input command configured totransmit the email document to a destination; and forward each copy to adocument management device, the forwarding of each copy causing thedocument management device to generate electronic image data for eachcopy of an email document, the electronic image data being generated ina compressed image format, the forwarding of each copy further causingthe generated electronic image data to be stored in the at least onedatabase to perform the capture archiving, the capture archiving beingperformed without further input from the user notwithstanding the singleuser input command for transmitting the email document to a destination,the storing of said image data in the at least one database beingseparate from the transmission of the email document to the destinationand transparent to the user, the capture archiving for each emaildocument occurring at substantially a time that the email document istransferred over the network.
 8. The email server of claim 7, whereinthe destination comprises a destination client system.
 9. The emailserver of claim 7, wherein the email document comprises an emaildocument that was at least one of received and sent.
 10. The emailserver of claim 7, wherein at least one database is configured to storeimage data that was archived from at least one of a copier operation, aprinter operation, and a facsimile machine operation.
 11. A method forproviding automatic and transparent archiving of electronic documents ina network environment, the method comprising: generating a copy of eachemail document transmitted over the network environment, the emaildocument being transmitted in response to a single user input configuredto transmit the email document to a destination; and forwarding eachcopy to a document management device, the forwarding of each copycausing the document management device to generate electronic image datafor each copy of an email document, the electronic image data beinggenerated in a format acceptable for storage in at least one databasefor the document management device, the forwarding of each copy furthercausing the generated electronic image data of the email document to bestored in at least one database to perform the capture archiving, thecapture archiving being performed transparent to the user and withoutfurther input from the user notwithstanding the single user inputcommand for transmitting the email document to a destination, thecapture archiving for each email document occurring at substantially atime that the email document is transferred over the network.
 12. Themethod of claim 11, wherein the destination comprises a destinationclient system.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the email documentcomprises an email document that was at least one of received and sent.14. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one database is configuredto store image data that was archived from at least one of a copieroperation, a printer operation, and a facsimile machine operation. 15.The method of claim 14, wherein the image data is generated from ahardcopy.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the hardcopy is a paperprintout.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the copier operationcomprises a copy machine, the printer operation comprises a printer andthe facsimile machine operation comprises a scanner, and wherein thecopy machine, the printer and the scanner are configured to generateelectronic image data based on the paper printout.